Young Academies from all over Europe met in Berlin, Germany, on 21-23 May 2024. The meeting, organised and hosted by the German Junge Akademie, and co-hosted by the GYA, brought together representatives from 22 young academies and 2 young academy initiatives and again was the largest ever ENYA meeting to date.
The GYA was represented by Executive Committee member and GYA YASAS Delegate Markus Prutsch (European Parliament, Belgium), YASAS Observer Stella Tsani (University of Athens, Greece), EC member Hussam Hussein (Jordan), alumnus and co-lead of the 2021/22 GYA Sasha-Kagansky Interdisciplinary Grant, Bernardo Urbani (Venezuela), and Senior Project Officers Anna-Maria Gramatté and Jennifer Plaul, as well as Student Assistant Olga Demskaya. GYA member Gary Kerr attended for the Young Academy of Scotland, alumnus Javier García Martínez for the Young Academy of Spain, and member Tomislav Mestrovic (University North, Croatia) attended on behalf of the Croatian Young Academy initiative.
Participants in the Young Academies session heard about current successfully finalised projects at some of the young academies, and discussed best practices and lessons learned about various young-academy-relevant topics. Presentations included the following:
- Belgian Young Academy, Nicolas Baeyens: Art/Earth project: An ongoing project between science and art
- Swiss Young Academy, Darius Farman: SYNESPOD project (Swiss Young Network for Science Policy and Diplomacy)
- Young Academy of Sweden, Iva Lucic & Sverker Lundin: Stockholm Charter for Academic Freedom
- Norway Young Academy, Birger Berge & Feroz Mehmood Shah: Research competition for High School students
- Dutch Young Academy, Noel de Miranda: Everyone Professor initiative
- GYA, Bernardo Urbani: Project on Young Researchers and the COVID-19 Pandemic
A second part of the session looked at the young academies-specific opportunities and challenges of working within networks of established science academies/science organisations like IAP, ISC, or ALLEA. The presentations showed that membership of Young Academies in such established networks carry numerous opportunities for the YAs and can bring added value to the established networks as well. Nevertheless, membership in established networks also brings a number of challenges for the Young Academies relating to time constraints, available resources, and the level of independence of a Young Academy.
For the second time since an inaugural joint meeting in 2022, the 2024 meeting was held in conjunction with the ALLEA General Assembly and Public Symposium on “Research collaboration in a shifting geopolitical landscape”, which provided fantastic opportunities for joint discussions and planning of future joint activities. Joint workshops on Science Activism, Internationalisation, Multi-perspective Science Advice, and Reforming Research Assessment provided ample opportunities for exchange and learning.
Participants from both the ENYA and the ALLEA academies also engaged in a speed-dating exercise to exchange on recent science advice projects by various academies, and learned about the process of providing scientific evidence to the European Commission in an insightful science advice board game organised by YASAS, the Young Academies Science Advice Structure in Europe.
Next year’s ENYA meeting will be hosted by the Swiss Young Academy in Bern.
GYA members and alumni Tomislav (for the Croatian Young Academy Initiative), Markus (GYA YASAS Delegate, and EC Member), Hussam (EC Member), Stella (YASAS Observer), Javier (Spanish YA), and Senior Project Officer Anna-Maria. (Photo: GYA)